Inbound marketing is making waves in the dental industry. From the USA to the UAE, dental practices all over the world are waking up to the importance of using inbound strategies to communicate their values, connect with patients, and grow their business.
If you’ve already started thinking about how to promote your dental practice with digital marketing (and you should be!), then you’re probably looking for some concrete evidence that shows whether or not it’s going to work.
The last thing you want to do is spend weeks or months planning a kick-ass inbound campaign for your dental practice without knowing why you’re doing it.
We’re here to clear up any doubts you might have.
In this article, we’re sharing 6 reasons why inbound marketing is essential for dentists in 2021. Ready to sink your teeth in?
6 Reasons Why Inbound Marketing for Dentists is Essential in 2021
1. Establish yourself as an industry expert and authority
Every business wants to stand out from the crowd. Dentistry is a complex and dynamic industry, so modern dental businesses need to ensure they’re staying on top of industry trends and shifts in consumer behaviour. More importantly, they need to show their customers that!
A big part of your inbound strategy will be focused on content marketing. By sharing content with your audience, you’ll have the chance to establish yourself as an industry leader and authority in your field. You can create different types of content (think: podcasts, blog articles, webinars, social media posts) to share valuable information with leads and patients.
Instead of bombarding patients with advertisements in the hope of making a sale, why not earn their trust by sharing informative, relevant, and digestible content? They’ll appreciate it much more, trust us!
2. Increase your visibility and drive quality traffic to your website
Nowadays, consumers have the luxury of simply “Googling” everything they need to know, receiving a plethora of responses, products, and websites in seconds. Today, 81% of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase. Therefore, ensuring your business is visible on Google plays a crucial role in your success.
Inbound marketing is all about attracting the right kind of customers at the right time. A huge challenge for dental businesses is driving quality website traffic. Without these leads, you’re likely to experience low yields and conversion rates.
An inbound marketing strategy gets you in front of your audience. By implementing general and local SEO practices, you can work your way up to the front page of top search engines like Google and Bing. This way, you drive traffic and new leads to your website.
Moreover, they’re leads who were specifically searching for products, services, or content you offer.
3. Create authentic relationships built on trust
The thing about inbound is that it’s focused on attracting, converting, and engaging qualified leads. Those leads are more likely to become loyal customers who are going to stick around.
Authentic and positive customer relationships drive businesses. The same goes for dental surgeries. When you delight customers with great content, a good user experience, and excellent communication, they’re much more likely to leave positive reviews and testimonials.
When patients are loyal to your brand, you can continue to delight them with segmented email marketing campaigns, informative content that answers their questions, customer loyalty programs, and more. This ensures they remain connected to your dental practice, so you’re the first one they turn to when they need to book their next appointment.
The point of inbound marketing isn’t to snag a sale. It’s about cultivating relationships with patients that last beyond their initial appointment, cementing your dental practice as something more than a business—an experience.
4. Connect with your target audience on social media
Although most of us use social media to keep in contact with friends and family or mindlessly scroll as we wait for the bus, it’s also one of the best free marketing tools out there.
Your inbound strategy should have ample focus on social media. Leveraging these free platforms to connect and communicate with your target audience is a great way to build rapport and nurture relationships.
Simply being present and active on social media can help drive traffic to your site.
Sharing the content you create or any news and updates with your followers creates instant connections and keeps you at the forefront of their minds.
They’ll also be inclined to share it with their family and friends, boosting brand awareness and ultimately leading to more patient sign-ups. 86% of customers trust word-of-mouth reviews and recommendations, so it’s a good idea to get as close to your audience as possible (just don’t be obnoxious about it).
5. It’s affordable
One of the best things about inbound is that it’s highly affordable and yields excellent ROI.
As a dental practice, you’ll have a lot of expenses on your hands. From buying expensive dental equipment to hiring qualified dentists, to the general day-to-day costs of running a business—it all adds up. Knowing there’s a cost-effective way to market your business and receive better results than relying on paid advertising is a weight off the shoulder of any busy dental practice!
Globally, 79% of companies that have a blog report a positive ROI for inbound marketing, and content marketing costs a whopping 62% less than traditional marketing results in 3x the number of leads. Sounds like a no-brainer right? Why wouldn’t you invest in inbound marketing?
That’s not to say that inbound marketing is completely free. As you start out creating content for your website and blog, you likely won’t be spending much. As your dental practice grows, you might need to set aside a bit more in your budget to ensure you are leveraging inbound to its full potential.
You might choose to hire a digital marketing agency with key skills relating to the dentistry industry (like YourTarget) or invest in a CRM platform (like HubSpot) and other digital marketing tools to manage your contacts and workflows.
6. It’s the way forward
There’s no better way to put it: inbound is the future of marketing.
In today’s digital era, traditional outbound marketing methods simply aren’t as effective as they used to be (who has time for ads?) As a result, consumer demands and expectations across industries have shifted.
People no longer want to be treated as numbers to be crunched. They want businesses to recognize their value. That they’re people.
When it comes to dentistry, consumers want to be informed before putting their precious teeth in the hands of a stranger, so businesses must adapt their marketing strategies to show potential clients what they can expect, rather than tell them.
Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than outbound tactics. The main thing that differentiates inbound from traditional forms of marketing is that it’s not a tactic, channel, or technology—it’s a philosophy.
For these reasons, inbound is sustainable. This strategy isn’t simply about making a sale (although it plays a major role), it’s about the overall growth of your dental practice and how to get there. For this reason, it’s not something that’s implemented one day and yields instant results the next.
Inbound requires a strong foundation to build your strategy from the ground up. You’ll need to plan content, choose which platforms to focus your efforts on, build your email list, and more. But it’ll all be worth it when you see your patient base is filled with loyal, satisfied customers (and lots of them too!).
There’s no final stage of inbound where you simply can’t grow anymore. As you continue to modify and improve your strategy to align with the evolving needs of your business and its customers, you’ll fall in love with the dynamic world that is inbound marketing. And, you’ll have a successful business to show for it!
Ready to grow your dental practice with inbound marketing?
If all the reasons listed above haven’t convinced you of the value inbound marketing could have for your dental practice—well, we don’t know what will.
For modern dental businesses, simply existing, having a basic website, and just picking up the telephone isn’t enough. Modern consumers expect much more from businesses, even their dentists!
If you want to remain competitive in today’s digital world, there’s no avoiding the inbound methodology. Whether you want to start and market a dental business in Dubai or New York, your inbound strategy is how you differentiate yourself and grow as a business.
Want to know more about using inbound marketing to grow and nurture your dental practice? We know a thing or two. Book a consultation today, let’s chat!
